US10234835B2ActiveUtilityA1

Management of computing devices using modulated electricity

98
Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLCPriority: Jul 11, 2014Filed: Mar 30, 2015Granted: Mar 19, 2019
Est. expiryJul 11, 2034(~8 yrs left)· nominal 20-yr term from priority
G06Q 50/06H02J 3/14G05B 15/02Y02B70/3225Y04S20/222H02J 3/02G06F 1/26H02J 2105/12Y02B90/20Y04S20/00
98
PatentIndex Score
80
Cited by
564
References
20
Claims

Abstract

This document relates to management of computing devices using modulated electricity. One example includes assigning a set of time slices to a computing device for drawing electricity and subsequently causing the computing device to adjust consumption of the electricity by assigning a different set of time slices to the computing device.

Claims

exact text as granted — not AI-modified
The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A system comprising:
 a filter configured to:
 receive mixed-frequency electricity having green electricity generated by a renewable power source mixed with brown electricity generated by a carbon fuel source, the green electricity being modulated at a first alternating current frequency and the brown electricity being modulated at a second alternating current frequency, and 
 attenuate the second alternating current frequency of the mixed-frequency electricity to obtain filtered green electricity that is predominantly of the first alternating current frequency; and 
 
 a computing device confiqured to designate computing jobs powered by the filtered green electricity as green computing jobs and other computing jobs powered by the brown electricity as brown computing jobs. 
 
     
     
       2. The system of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a second filter configured to:
 receive the mixed-frequency electricity having the green electricity modulated at the first alternating current frequency and the brown electricity modulated at the second alternating current frequency, and 
 attenuate the first alternating current frequency of the mixed-frequency electricity to obtain filtered brown electricity that is predominantly of the second alternating current frequency, the filtered brown electricity being used to power the brown computing jobs. 
 
 
     
     
       3. The system of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 a first server powered by the filtered green electricity and configured to run the green computing jobs; and 
 a second server powered by the filtered brown electricity and configured to run the brown computing jobs. 
 
     
     
       4. The system of  claim 3 , wherein the computing device is further configured to:
 send an instruction to the first server to reduce consumption of the filtered green electricity while allowing the second server to continue uncapped consumption of the filtered brown electricity. 
 
     
     
       5. The system of  claim 3 , wherein the computing device is configured to:
 send an instruction to a switch, the instruction causing the switch to open and prevent the filtered green electricity from reaching the first server. 
 
     
     
       6. The system of  claim 2 , further comprising a meter configured to separately meter usage of the filtered green electricity and the filtered brown electricity. 
     
     
       7. The system of  claim 2 , the renewable power source being a local renewable power source, the system further comprising:
 electrical hardware configured to modulate the green electricity generated by the local renewable power source into the first alternating current frequency. 
 
     
     
       8. The system of  claim 7 , further comprising an electrical line carrying the green electricity at the first alternating current frequency and the brown electricity at the second alternating current frequency, the brown electricity being provided by an electrical grid. 
     
     
       9. A system comprising:
 an electrical line carrying modulated electricity having green electricity produced by a green power source and brown electricity produced by a brown power source modulated at different alternating current frequencies, the green electricity being modulated at a first alternating current frequency and the brown electricity being modulated at a second alternating current frequency; 
 a filter configured to attenuate the second alternating current frequency to obtain filtered green electricity; 
 a rectifier configured to convert the filtered green electricity into direct current; and 
 a computing device configured to run green computing jobs powered by the direct current. 
 
     
     
       10. The system of  claim 9 , further comprising:
 a battery charqeable by the rectifier, the computing device drawing the direct current from the battery. 
 
     
     
       11. The system of  claim 9 , the computing device being configured to draw the direct current from the rectifier. 
     
     
       12. The system of  claim 9 , further comprising:
 a second filter configured to attenuate the first alternating current frequency to obtain filtered brown electricity; 
 a second rectifier configured to convert the filtered brown electricity into second direct current; and 
 a second computing device configured to run brown computing jobs powered by the second direct current. 
 
     
     
       13. A method comprising:
 obtaining mixed-frequency electricity having green electricity produced by a renewable power source and brown electricity produced by a fossil fuel power source modulated at different alternating current frequencies, the green electricity being modulated at a first alternating current frequency and the brown electricity being modulated at a second alternating current frequency; 
 attenuating the second alternating current frequency of the mixed-frequency electricity to obtain filtered green electricity that is predominantly of the first alternating current frequency; and 
 powering green jobs on a computing device using the filtered green electricity. 
 
     
     
       14. The method of  claim 13 , further comprising:
 rectifying the filtered green electricity to provide green direct current; and 
 powering the computing device using the green direct current. 
 
     
     
       15. The method of  claim 14 , further comprising:
 attenuating the first alternating current frequency to obtain filtered brown electricity that is predominantly of the second alternating current frequency; and 
 powering brown computing jobs on a second computing device using the filtered brown electricity. 
 
     
     
       16. The method of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 rectifying the filtered brown electricity to provide brown direct current; and 
 powering the second computing device using the brown direct current. 
 
     
     
       17. The method of  claim 16 , further comprising:
 charging a first battery with the green direct current; 
 charging a second battery with the brown direct current; 
 powering the computing device with the first battery; and 
 powering the second computing device with the second battery. 
 
     
     
       18. The method of  claim 13 , further comprising:
 receiving an instruction to stop drawing green electricity; and 
 responsive to the instruction, causing the computing device to stop drawing the filtered green electricity. 
 
     
     
       19. The method of  claim 13 , further comprising:
 generating the green electricity with a renewable energy generator that produces green direct current; and 
 inverting the green direct current into the first alternating current frequency. 
 
     
     
       20. The method of  claim 19 , further comprising:
 mixing the green electricity at the first alternating current frequency with the brown electricity at the second alternating current frequency.

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